911 Telecommunicators Pension Benefits Workgroup

This was the agenda for today's meeting:

Item 1 attendance turned out to be very important. The workgroup committee has only 2 Corrections Officers that can vote. The CO from Sherburne County chosen by PERA and the MSRS CO from the State were not there! (EDIT: After this posting it was learned the vote was scheduled when neither were available.)

This meant there was no corrections vote when it came to approving or arguing changes and the all important vote to approve and adopt the report! There is an Advisor a retired CO, Wade Laszlo. He was able to speak but unable to make motions to make changes to the draft or vote on approval at this meeting.

The Chair stated that for something to have consensus there had to be no objections. So there was no consensus to improve the Dispatcher's pension and the line stating "Pension coverage for 911 Telecommunicators should not be changed to the PERA or MSRS Correctional Plans" was scratched before the meeting even started! However there will be no recommendation to add them to the corrections plan either.

The Dispatchers and dispatch groups were united on wanting to improve their plan including most wanting in on the Correctional Plans. The County and City Governmental Groups were against that, as well as the Correctional Officers (from previous meetings) were neutral on improving dispatcher's pensions but all against adding them to the Correctional Plan.

What's next? The report and appendix will be presented to the Legislative Commission on Pension and Retirement. They can let it die, ask for additional study or use it to make recommendations to the full legislature.

MNCORA did object to the 7 anonymous LELS testimonials in the appendix and names were added to the letters.

The vote approved and passed the Final Draft.

We will publish the final draft when it is out.

Correctional Officers Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees

As of January 1, 2025, Correctional Officers are Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees the same as Police and Fire. This has implications for disability, taxes and retirement. As we face new challenges to our pension in 2025 this will further the distinction between PERA General Plan members like 911 Dispatch and Probation and CO's in the PERA Correctional Plan. It's part of the Secure Act 2.0. 26 USC § 72(t)()(10) definition of Public Safety Employee - qualified public safety employee (10) Distributions to qualified public safety employees and private sector firefighters (A) In general In the case of a distribution to a qualified public safety employee from a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414(d) ) or a distribution from a plan described in clause (iii), (iv), or (vi) of section 402(c)(8)(B) to an employee who provides firefighting services, paragraph (2)(A)(v) shall be applied by substituting “age 50 or 25 years of service u...

New Bill for Corrections seat on the PERA Board

MNCORA thanks Representatives Peggy Scott and House Leader Harry Niska for Authoring HF708 in the House and senators Cal Bahr and Jim Abeler for authoring the bill in the Senate SF1556 . Next step is for the LCPR to hear this Bill. Here's a link to the Pension Committee (LCPR). It's very important to contact them and ask them to give it a hearing for it to move on. https://www.lcpr.mn.gov/members.htm

MAPE and Teamsters gearing up for pension raid?

Currently there's an MSRS Correctional Plan Eligibility Work Group looking at who and should and should not be in the MSRS (State) Correctional Plan. The recommendations are due to the LCPR by January 10, 2025. As always there's a letter citing MAPE and Teamsters desire to add Probation Officers to both the MSRS and PERA Correctional Plans . Because why wouldn't they try this again out of our sight? Last year of course there was the Bill to add Dispatch to our Correctional Plan, and Rep. Wolgamott (the author) stated the issue was not dead. We fully expect another attempt this year. The last line of MAPE's letter says it all: This upcoming session will be challenging with possibly probation and dispatch both making a run at our pension. MNCORA will be watching. We plan to again submit a Bill to add a CO to the PERA Board (Something State CO's have). Last year Representative Niska authored it, but the LCPR declined to give it a hearing. This session Rep. Niska w...

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